Friday, May 1, 2015

A little tribute video I put together - remembering Paul Winchell...
ventriloquist, inventor, actor... wasn't easy finding usable video and photos of poor "Winch" as so much
of his legacy was intentionally destroyed by MetroMedia Inc during a
spiteful dispute over syndication rights. Winch ended up winning a few
million bucks in damages - but I'm sure he would've rather have had the
shows instead... I read that over 300 half hour shows were destroyed,
and although reports vary, I've read that only about a dozen water-damaged tapes of Winchell-Mahoney Time exist. So tragic....

The idea to make a video tribute started after I heard one of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcasts where Steve Buscemi was the guest. Frank Santopadre (Gilbert's co-host) asked Buscemi if he had ever played with puppets - and he confessed, yes... "I had a Jerry Mahoney doll" - and that led into a hilarious walk down memory lane with all three of them talking about the "Winchell-Mahoney Time" show. Gilbert (who's got a mind like a time capsule) began to sing the theme song - and it was fairly close to the record - word from word. Now, this was a record I had also purchased on eBay some years back - so I then thought it would be a great idea taking clips of that interview, the songs on the record and any pictures I could find on the internet and make something that perhaps would be seen by many others. If the influence Paul Winchell had on Gilbert, Frank and Steve was any indication that there are probably many more out there - then my work would not have been done in vain.